Pearl crossed her arms. "Okay, but what did you actually see? Don't leave me hanging here."
I set the Eye down on the nightstand, still warm from being pressed against my face, and tried to put words to what I'd just witnessed. "There are threads. Gold ones, wrapped around their chests and throats, pulsing every time they breathe. And there's a knot, right here." I pressed my hand against my own ribs, low, where the diaphragm sat. "That's where it all starts. That's what's feeding the rest of it."
"So we cut the knot."
"Not cut. Dissolve it." I rubbed my eyes, trying to hold onto the image the Eye had shown me before it faded completely. "The knot is made of something that responds to her flowers, right? So we need the opposite. Something bitter. Something that fights back against whatever she used to make them compliant in the first place."
